ROGER DALTREY RECALLS DISCOVERING HIS THREE LOVE CHILDREN

Roger Daltrey's autobiography, Thanks A Lot Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story, is set for publication in the U.S. on October 23rd. In the book, Daltrey takes a serious look at his admittedly happy-go-lucky life, which amazingly has produced eight children -- three of which he didn't know about until after his 50th birthday. The title of Daltrey's memoir name-checks his "draconian headmaster" who expelled Daltrey from high school, leading him to reach his true potential as a musician fronting the Who.

During a chat with The Mirror, Daltrey recalled opening a letter on his 50th birthday containing a photo from a woman he knew at first sight -- not to mention from the copy of the enclosed birth certificate -- was his daughter. Daltrey is thrilled at the surprise children who have popped up in recent years, explaining, "They all came into my life after my 50th birthday. It was great -- it’s all worked out. They stay in touch and they’re close, so that’s great. I’ve tried to do my best about a situation that couldn’t change because it happened a long time ago."

In the new autobiography, Daltrey speaks frankly at how the allure of pursuing a life with the Who on the road took precedent over his first wife, Jackie and his oldest son Simon, who's now 55. Daltrey told the paper that although his actions in the short run were pretty brutal, he had his eye on the prize -- for all involved: "In my head, what was going on was, "If I can make this work, I can look after everyone in my family -- Jackie, Simon my son, Mum, Dad, everyone. I can give them all a better life. And that’s what happened. But to do what I had to do was very, very hard. And I had to be a s*** to do it. I’m very close to Simon now. Jackie married again and had two other kids. The whole tribe of us used to go on holiday together." In addition to an unnamed daughter and son, Daltrey's other out of wedlock child is 50-year-old son Mathias, whose mother is model Elisabeth Aronsson.

Much has been made of Daltrey's 47-year "open marriage" to wife Heather Taylor -- an American model who famously was the inspiration for Jimi Hendrix's "Foxey Lady." The couple has three children -- Rosie, 46; Willow, 43; and Jamie, 37. Daltrey said that it was Heather who was able to make the relationship work and last through the decades, saying, "Heather is amazing. To find a woman who understood what this business was like, who I was and who we were, and to accept that and still want to be with me when I came home was a gift from the universe. Whether that’s an open marriage or just a matter of being honest with her, because I was never going to be the perfect husband in that sense. So when I come back off tours, we don’t talk about it. She accepted that. And you can criticize it, you can say whatever. But all I can say is, whatever we did it worked because we’ve been together for 50 years and I’m starting to like it."

Although he's in no way forgotten the band's incredible history, Roger Daltrey recognizes that the Who remains very much a part of the now -- both in terms of the business and a still growing legion of fans: "It's nice to have survived, because we did lose a lot of friends on the way. It is extraordinary -- and (to) still able to be able to draw an audience that in some ways is, y'know -- to what young bands kind of draw -- is enormous; thanks to things, like CSI and our songs being on there and other bands picking up Who music and saying that it influenced them. Their fans come and see us and they say: 'Woo, this is something different.' I mean, it's true, Who music is very different from most rock n' roll that's out there."